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The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing is an absolute marketing classic, outlining 22 rules by which companies function, and, depending on how much you adhere to them, will determine the success or failure of your products and ultimately, your company.
The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing is an absolute marketing classic, outlining 22 rules by which companies function, and, depending on how much you adhere to them, will determine the success or failure of your products and ultimately, your company.
The book starts with the Law of Leadership, which states that if your product is the first of its kind on the market, chances are high it’ll become the market leader. Simply by having the so-called first mover advantage, you can use the lag time competitors have to your advantage.
However, that’s not the only way you can become a market leader. After all, if someone’s already made their move before you, you can’t be first any longer. When that’s the case, focus on being first somewhere else: in the minds of your customers. You know this phenomenon. When I say “ketchup” you think “Heinz,” when I say “whiskey” you might think “Jack Daniels” and when the term “electric car” falls in conversation, most people’s thoughts wander to “Tesla.”
Every time we think of a certain product, one particular brand will pop up in our heads before any others – and that’s often the market leader. This is the Law of the Mind.
Once these assumptions have been made and forged into our brains, they’re hard to get rid of. Just think of the many products whose names have become synonymous with brand names, like “Kleenex,” “Tivo,” and “Google.” When your brand name enters the dictionary, you know you’ve made it.
So what if you can’t do either of those things? Well, in that case, you can just come up with your own, entirely new category and you’ll automatically be first. This is the Law of Category in action.
For example, Sam Walton didn’t invent the retail store, he innovated by coming up with the discount retail store. Walmart was the first chain of retail stores to offer vast discounts for all of its products. Defining his own category worked out well for him.
Nutella has done something similar. Instead of trying to come up with another kind of jam to put on your bread, Ferrero, the company behind it, came up with something new altogether: a chocolate hazelnut spread. It’s insanely popular in Germany, and is usually addressed with its name, rather than a descriptive term (“Hand me the Nutella, please” as opposed to “Hand me the chocolate spread”).
This is a softened version of the idea from Zero to One to go vertical in progress, instead of horizontal.
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Get the complete summary in the appBe first on the market, or first in peoples’ heads.
Avoid competition by coming up with your own product category and dominating that.
Never forget that each product comes with a big opportunity cost. Focus is important.
"The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing" is a strong fit if you want practical ideas around business, buisness, communication skills—especially themes like be first on the market, or first in peoples’ heads; avoid competition by coming up with your own product category and dominating that. The MinuteRead summary distills these concepts into a focused read, whether you're deciding whether to buy the book or applying its lessons at work.
Al Ries was the father of positioning, a legendary marketing strategist, and the bestselling author of 12 books that have sold over 6 million copies worldwide. In 1972, Al co-authored the now infamous three-part series of articles declaring the arrival of the Positioning Era in Advertising Age magazine. The concept of positioning revolutionized how people viewed advertising and marketing. Marketing was traditionally thought of as communications, but successful brands are those that find an open…
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